Hong Kong authorities will ‘act first' to prevent chikungunya fever: minister

The Star

8 hours ago

Hong Kong's hygiene officers will adopt an 'act first' approach by clearing stagnant water in unattended private places to tackle the threat of chikungunya fever, the city's environment minister has said.
Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan on Wednesday pledged to eliminate mosquito breeding grounds, even in places where responsibility for maintenance was unclear.
'This is a critical time for disease prevention. I believe the public is most concerned about private alleyways where no government department is clearly responsible,' Tse told a radio programme, a day after the city recorded its sixth imported case of mosquito-borne chikungunya fever.
'If the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department sees stagnant water or a potential mosquito problem, but cannot find the person in charge as the management of private streets and buildings can sometimes be unclear, it will act first to clean it.'
Tse referred to 'three-nil' buildings that have neither an owners' corporation nor a residents' organisation and do not employ a property management company.
He added that other government departments were expected to adopt the same mindset, tackling issues as they arose and avoiding delays caused by jurisdictional disputes.
'We need everyone to work together on mosquito extermination. It would be inefficient if we were to divide the tasks among different departments,' Tse said.
The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department has formed multi-departmental working groups across the city's 18 districts to drive its mosquito control initiatives.
From January to July this year, the department took legal action on 84 occasions for stagnant water-related offences, with 77 of them targeting construction sites.
Lawmaker Steven Ho Chun-yin, meanwhile, stressed the importance of prevention over punishment.
While he welcomed a plan by the Highways Department to conduct impromptu inspections at road maintenance sites, which were high-risk areas, Ho said issuing tickets or fines could be counterproductive.
'Instead, the government should prioritise proactive education and awareness, urging construction site managers to take mosquito control seriously before the annual mosquito season begins,' he said.
Ho also expressed concern about the effectiveness of the government's strategies, noting that while a focus on mosquito prevention was crucial, the quality and coordination of the work needed to be higher.
'The government requires departments to carry out mosquito extermination across the city, and some areas need to be done immediately, leading to insufficient manpower for coordination among different departments,' Ho said.
'For example, a department might wash the street after larvicidal oil [in breeding spots] has been applied, which may lower the quality of the mosquito prevention.'
Before August 2, Hong Kong's last recorded cases of chikungunya fever were in 2019, when a total of 11 people were infected. The city also reported two cases in 2018, one in 2017 and eight in 2016. All cases between 2016 and 2019 were imported.
The latest case of the disease was reported on Tuesday, involving a 31-year-old man from Kwai Tsing district, who had travelled to Foshan in Guangdong province, the site of an outbreak, from August 1 to 3.
Tse noted that with the rise in imported cases, the risk of local transmission had also increased, adding that authorities would enhance mosquito prevention and eradication efforts within a 250-metre radius of where patients lived and worked.
The government was introducing innovative mosquito control technologies, including a new type of trap, he said.
'When mosquitoes come into contact with it, they carry a larvicide back to their breeding grounds, killing the larvae at the source,' he said.
Authorities were also researching a new biocontrol method that used bacteria to prevent mosquitoes from transmitting viruses, he said, but it needed time and was not expected to be ready for trial until next summer. - SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST